


Masterpiece

by PorcelainLove



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Churches and stripping do not mix, First Kiss, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 00:05:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12946968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PorcelainLove/pseuds/PorcelainLove
Summary: "I’m not going to undress in Church.  Some things are sacred." Akira rolled his eyes and fought off that warm feeling in the pit of his stomach that always emerged when Yusuke did something ridiculous. Or adorable. Or intelligent.  Heck, Akira was so far gone down the rabbit hole that if they were anywhere else, he probably would have done it.





	Masterpiece

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first Persona 5 fic! I've never read any other fics so I am so, so sorry if the characters are super ooc!  
> You know how ideas just won't leave your head until you jot them down? Yeah, welcome to my life. xD
> 
> Hope you find this enjoyable! <3

“You want me to do what?”

Akira couldn’t believe his ears. Or his eyes. And yet there Yusuke was, staring at him like there was nothing at all wrong with their conversation, an expectant look on his face that seemed to rub Akira the wrong way.  Or was it the right way?

“Strip.  You suggested it, Akira, I am merely accepting your suggestion.” Yusuke was smiling, the corner of his mouth pulled up.  On anyone else it would have looked like a smirk, and Akira definitely would have known he was being teased. Or mocked. But on Yusuke it seemed as innocent a gesture as going to a church to see the angels.

“I was joking, Yusuke.  I’m not going to undress in Church.  Some things are sacred.” Akira rolled his eyes and fought off that warm feeling in the pit of his stomach that always emerged when Yusuke did something ridiculous. Or adorable. Or intelligent.  Heck, Akira was so far gone down the rabbit hole that if they were anywhere else, he probably would have done it.

Yusuke looked affronted. “But, but you’re my model! My muse! When I’m with you the passion practically flows through my fingers.  My soul sings and the colours appear and—“ He broke off when there was a sharp cough from a neighbouring pew. He turned and got a glare in answer to his upraised brow.

“This is a Church!” The parishioner’s voice was quiet yet full of anger.  It seemed that, yet again, Yusuke had unintentionally angered someone. 

Yusuke nodded solemnly. “Yes, I am well aware.  It is the perfect place for me to conduct my work, to ascertain the meaning of ‘suffering’, to create what has never been—“

Akira decided to defuse the situation before it got any worse.  And knowing Yusuke and his unerring ability (in Akira’s mind) to be both maddeningly fascinating and also fascinatingly maddening he wouldn’t stop on his own.  At this rate, they were going to be kicked out of the church and that was just something Akira didn’t want anyone to find out.  Knowing his luck it would someone get back to Sojiro and… yeah, better to contain the situation now.

“We were just leaving.” Akira announced, grabbing Yusuke’s arm for emphasis and tugging minutely.  “Weren’t we, Yusuke?”

“...I suppose.” Yusuke still looked adorably confused but he gathered up his supplies and made a slight apologetic bow towards the irritated old lady before allowing Akira to lead him out of the church. 

Akira tried to convince himself that keeping his arm linked with Yusuke’s was to encourage him to leave, and not because he’d been looking for an excuse to touch the artist all day.  He refused to acknowledge the voice at the back of his mind telling him that Yusuke was just being polite in not pulling away.  Surely, _surely_ , all these romantic and sexual situations they kept finding themselves in weren’t just fate pulling his leg.  They must mean something, he couldn’t have been the only person thinking it.

But Yusuke never seemed to be bothered by these situations.  Maybe it was all in Akira’s head.  After all, he didn’t even know if Yusuke liked men.

Besides, he had proposed to Ann first, so to speak.  And with her vehement refusal to do anything of the sort, maybe Yusuke decided to find himself another (un)willing participant? And it wasn’t like Akira had no interest in helping Yusuke with his work, far from it – he found the artist’s enthusiasm contagious – but he wanted to know if there was something, _anything_ , more to their little… arrangement.

It took a moment for Akira to realize that they were well away from the church.  Without even realizing, Akira had steered them both to a more secluded area.  And even more surprising, Yusuke still hadn’t withdrawn his arm from Akira’s very firm grip.

“Sorry about that.” Akira stated lamely as they reached a park bench, loosening his hold on Yusuke’s arm and sitting down on the bench as if coming here was his intention all along.

“No apologies necessary.  As you know sometimes I… I can come off a little intense.” With a quirk of his shoulder, Yusuke had the decently to look at least somewhat embarrassed. “Maybe I’ve been trying too hard.  Instead of searching, if I let the aesthetic come to me…” He took a seat beside Akira, close enough for Akira to feel the warmth of his body.

“Well, I’m here if you need me.  I said I’d help, after all.  Just… no more telling me to strip in public places, okay?”

Yusuke looked at his feet and seemed lost in thought.  Or maybe he was staring at some imaginary scuff mark on his pristine black shoes.  Akira was never sure how to tell when Yusuke was coming up with a plan or just spacing out.

“No public places…”

Akira barely heard him over the noise of a passing group of teenage girls, and even less so when his attention was drawn to one of them when she suddenly stopped.

“You!”

She pointed a finger accusingly at Yusuke who was unfortunately still lost in thought and paying little attention to the world surrounding him.  However, seeing that her dramatic pointing was going to get no reaction, she redirected it towards Akira.

“And you!”

“Me?” Akira was confused. The girl seemed familiar in some way but he just couldn’t place her. It didn’t help that they were all wearing school uniforms because now his mind was split between trying to figure out where he’d seen her before and what school she went to. Neither of which were very important because she chose to fill in one of those gaps for him with her next words.

“You were on the boat with that guy! I remember you!”

Ah right, that was another incident in which Yusuke had gotten a little too… well, himself.  It was hard to forget how embarrassed Akira was when the ‘truth’ about the couple next to them was that they weren’t a couple at all. And even more so when he realized that if he and Yusuke thought that brother and sister were a couple, people liked thought the same about him and the blue-haired eccentric.  Not that they were related, that is, but that they were _ahem_ romantically involved.  After all, boat rides _were_ associated with dating and romance, that’s why the Akira had accompanied Yusuke there in the first place. That was the intention, anyway, to find love for Yusuke.

In a manner of speaking.

“Oh… hey.” Akira said lamely, not really knowing what else to do. Yusuke was no help whatsoever, still mumbling away to himself and the girl and her friends were now giggling amongst themselves like a, well, a bunch of schoolgirls.

“I just wanted to say, like, oh my god you guys embarrassed me and my brother so damn much _but_ I kind of have to forgive you because you’re just the cutest couple I’ve ever seen.  And you know what, I get it!  I was just super into the ride and having such a great time… but anyway.  Just wanted to say Hi, awkward hi I guess.”  The girl lapsed into silence but her bright smile said it all. She wasn’t joking about any of it.

_Any of it._

She actually thought that he and Yusuke were--?  Never mind the fact that Akira wished it were true, desperately so, Yusuke had never shown the slightest inclination towards… well, honestly towards anyone.  Akira assumed Yusuke was straight because of the way he’d come on to Ann but… could that have just been the artist inside him talking? Shit, his mind was getting away from him and leading him down a tunnel that really, really had no end.

Yusuke had finally stopped mumbling to himself and seemed to be paying attention.  At least, he had brought out his sketchpad and pushed himself further down the bench to get a better view of the proceedings. 

Perfect, it was up to Akira to do all the talking, like usual.  Sometimes Yusuke really was the epitome of uselessness.

“Actually, we’re not really…”

Yusuke finally cut in. “Out.”

The girl blinked in confusion before it finally clicked. “Oh. Oh! I’m so sorry!  I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable!  We’ll just be going!”

“Out!” Yusuke commanded this time, and made a jerky motion with his left hand. His right was in constant motion, drawing or sketching or _something_ that somehow, when Yusuke did it, looked like a matter of life and death.

When the group left, hurrying away with whispered words and a few stray uncomfortable giggles, Akira finally looked at Yusuke and was not at all surprised to see piercing eyes staring right back at him.

“We’re not out?”

“She was in the way.”

Now Akira was the confused one. “What are you talking about? You said we weren’t out.”

“No, I said out.  As in, get out of my line of sight because you’re ruining my aesthetic and getting in the way of my sketch.” Yusuke shoved the pencil he was using between his teeth and smoothed his fingertips across the sketch pad, clearly blending or shading or—

“You know that’s not what those girls are going to think.  They think we’re a couple, you know that, right?”

“Hmm.”

Akira rolled his eyes. “Is that seriously all you have to say? Hmm?  They think we’re gay!” Akira wasn’t sure why he was getting so worked up over such a trivial matter. It’s not like he was likely to ever see those people again, and even if he did they might choose to distance themselves from him for fear of furthering his or their embarrassment.

“Aren’t you? I thought that was common knowledge.” The pencil made the words come out a bit distorted but as articulate as Yusuke usually was, Akira had zero problem understanding.

Akira gaped like one of the fish he’d caught the other day with Ryuji.  That was certainly not where he expected this conversation to be going.

“How did you--?”

“When we were in Hawaii.  Ryuji asked you about your ‘type’, if you’ll recall.  You made no overt statement to the fact but your uncomfortableness with the situation and general disregard for Ann and Makoto’s semi-nudity was fairly telling.  Am I… wrong?” Yusuke took the pencil out of his mouth and tucked it behind his ear, drawing hand finally slowing down as he realized the precariousness of the situation he had created.  “But I have suspected for a while, I just thought it rude to state out loud.”

Akira’s mouth shut with a snap.  He wasn’t really sure what to say. He never exactly hid his attraction to men before (he thought he’d felt something for Ryuji when they first met but that developed into more friendship than anything else, even though deep down Akira suspected Ryuji might be _slightly_ overcompensating for something with all his comments about Ann) but he wasn’t exactly super open about it. Even with his friends.

“Yeah, I am.  I’m sorry if that makes you…” Akira winced. “Uncomfortable?”

Yusuke made a few more marks on the page before he answered, but it seemed more that he was preoccupied rather than avoiding the conversation.

“Should it? I am hardly one to judge.”

Akira could feel his heart beginning to thump just a little faster, blood rushing through his body at faster than normal speeds.  He had to clench his fists in his lap to keep his fingers from twitching out of nervousness.

“What do you mean? Are you-?”

“Gay? No.”

Akira’s heart sank and he fought against that instinctual reaction to get up and walk away, to leave this uncomfortable conversation (and his feelings) behind until he had more strength to deal with them accordingly.

“I appreciate beauty in all forms, I don’t much care for defining what my sexuality is.  Why do you think I asked you to help me?” Yusuke was finally finished and he lowered the pad down.  Akira could tell it was a person in the image but he wasn’t sure exactly what Yusuke had felt compelled to draw.

“Because Ann said no?” Akira hazarded a guess.  Wasn’t that it?  She said no and so he chose the one person who couldn’t say no to anybody?  Yusuke didn’t have a lot of friends so his choices were fairly limited.

“Ann is… beautiful, there is no doubt there.  But in reality, I might have lied a little when I first met you all.  I told you that I was drawn to Ann and felt compelled to ask her to model for me while in actuality… it was you I was looking at all along.”  Yusuke’s grey eyes were bright and honest and they looked at Akira like he was the only thing left in the world.  “When I finally saw you up close I was too shy to ask so I deferred to my second choice.  Ann is, after all, a fine lady.”

Akira didn’t know what to say. Was Yusuke saying he found Akira attractive or just that… he was beautiful?

Reaching over, Akira pulled the finished sketch gently from Yusuke’s graceful fingers, marveling at how much the other man could accomplish in such a short time. 

It was… stunning.  There wasn’t much else Akira could say when he looked at the picture.  It was meant to be some version of him, certainly, but there was something about it that made him look like much more than he thought he was.

There were abstract swirls throughout the work, reminiscent of Van Gogh (who Akira admittedly didn’t know much about until he started hanging out with Yusuke).  There were also harsh lines in the background, fierce things that contrasted greatly with the bubbling waves surrounding them.  If Akira had to guess, he would have supposed Arsene was making himself known.

But there was something unearthly and serene despite it all.  Akira was, well, he wasn’t an art student and he couldn’t describe a picture to save his life but even he knew, he _knew_ , that this piece was the beginning of a spectacular career.  He only hoped he’d been around long enough to see Yusuke reach his peak, and continue onwards.

“This is how I see you, Akira.  To me your soul is bared, full of hope and light.  There are shadows in your mind that I can see clearly, things that are part of your past or maybe even your future.  But all of it, _you._ You are a masterpiece.”

“It’s beautiful…” Came the words, whispered as if speaking too loudly would cause the spell to be broken and the graphite to vanish in a flash of light.  Akira could feel Yusuke move closer to him, the bench shifting with his weight as he pulled up alongside and breached Akira’s defenses.

“You are beautiful.”

The kiss was hesitant, unsure, the complete reverse of the Yusuke that Akira knew so well.  It came at the corner of his mouth, as soft as a butterfly’s kiss. 

Yusuke pulled away when it was clear Akira was too shocked to move.  His eyes looked nervous and worried, and Akira felt a sour taste in his mouth at even the slightest suggestion that Yusuke regretted his actions.

Akira decided to settle things once and for all, letting the sketchpad drop from his fingers and clatter to the ground as he claimed Yusuke’s lips for himself.  There was a squawk of alarm from the artist (whether it was from the kiss or at the treatment of his work, Akira wasn’t sure) but it quickly vanished as the kiss grew more heated.

Yusuke tasted like tea, and spices, and _perfection._   It was something Akira didn’t even know had a taste until this moment.  It was something he never wanted to go a day without ever again.

When Akira came back to his senses he found his hands tangled in Yusuke’s dark hair, one thumb running playfully across the shell of an ear.  Yusuke’s face was flushed, his lips glistening and swollen, and there was a fire in his eyes that Akira hadn’t seen for a long time.

Akira was sure he looked just as disheveled, but try as he might, he just couldn’t find it within himself to care.

There was a yapping noise in the distance, growing steadily closer, and it was then that Akira remembered how public there tryst was.  Anyone could see, anyone probably _had_ seen.

Akira’s lips were tingling with the aftermath of their silent declaration of… whatever this way.  Lust? Love?  He was personally leaning towards the latter.  But they were in public, and this was hardly the place.

“So.” Akira said instead as he leaned over and picked up the dropped artwork, brushing off anything that may have disfigured it.  Yusuke didn’t even seem to have noticed, he was still staring at Akira.  There was some mysterious emotion in those eyes that Akira couldn’t discern.

“Indeed.” Yusuke agreed, drawing in a great breath of air and exhaling slowly as a family walked past, their excited puppy barking along beside them.

Akira smiled and said the words he never dreamed of ever saying in his life. “If you’re still looking for a nude model… I don’t have references but I’m pretty sure I’d be perfect for the job.”

Yusuke’s lips twitched as if he were trying to stop from grinning ear to ear. “I’m a very demanding artist, Akira.  I’m sorry to say that I’ll have to examine you to see if you’re right.  And my… examinations are very thorough.”

Standing up, Akira offered his hand and pulled Yusuke up when it was accepted.

“I’d expect nothing less from you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yusuke is a precious flower and I love him. <33333


End file.
